Melia's Message

by garggirl

Disclaimer:
Canon characters are copyright Cooper/Wright Productions.
No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holders.
All original characters are the property of garggirl.

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Melia stood alone in the hologram room. She had tried at least a dozens times in a dozens different ways to record a message, but nothing she came out with sounded right. More than one of her associates had accused her of over thinking situations, and she had tried to change this aspect of her personality for many years.

But since the war began, and her people became more and more desperate following each and every battle the enemy won, she had slowly turned into the leader, the voice of reason her people needed her to be. So why was this simple task so damn hard for her?

After a moment, Melia passed a hand over the control crystal, re-activating the recording device, and tried to record her message again.

She took a deep breath and began.

"Many millenia ago, we, the Altarian people, set away from Earth when a terrible sickness began to befall our kind. We knew not where it originated nor who had afflicted it upon us. Our peoples' greatest minds worked tiredlessly, unable to find a cure. Our numbers were rapidly dwindling, and those who had yet to fall under the strange spell of this mysterious sickness, left Earth in the hope of spreading new life in a galaxy where their appeared to be none. Soon, the new life grew and prospered. Here, we built the new civilizations a Stargate network so we may travel freely among the stars to exchange knowledge and friendship. In time, a thousand worlds bore the fruit of life in this form.

"Then, one day, our people set foot upon a dark world where a terrible enemy slept. Never before had we encountered beings with powers that rivaled our own. In our over confidence, we unprepared and outnumbered. The enemy fed upon the defenseless human worlds like a great scourge until finally only Atlantis remained. This city's great shield was powerful enough to withstand their terrible weapons, but here we were besieged for many years.

"In an effort to save the last of our kind, we submerged our great city into the ocean. The Atlantis Stargate was the one and only link back to Earth from this galaxy, and those who remained used it to return to that world that was once home. There, the last survivors of Atlantis lived out the remainder of their lives. This city was left to slumber, in the hope that our kind would one day return."

With a heavy, cleansing sigh, Melia powered down the hologram recorder. If Moros knew she had allowed Dr. Weir's pleas to get to her, the Council Elder would order the message destroyed, she was sure of it.

They would be leaving for Earth within the hour, and there was much that still had to be done. But one thing was for sure, in ten millenia from this day, when Dr. Weir's expedition team arrived to take their first steps into the greatest legacy the Altarians could leave to their descendants, they would know the whole story...

...She only hoped that Janus' secret plan for the alternate Dr. Weir would succeed in order for her own plan to work.

THE END